I SEE that Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove intends excluding BNP members and members of other groups which have an "extremist tenor" from teaching.

If only this "anti-extremist" policy had been implemented more rigorously in the past, we'd be much better off.

For example, if they'd chopped the heads off more people who claimed the Earth goes round the Sun, present-day astronomy would never have got off the ground. And if ancient Romans had let lions eat more of those "extremist" Christians, the benefits would have been enormous.

Moreover, it seems that the Tories (doubtless backed by Labour) want to bar alleged extremists from standing as school governors, even where such governors are democratically elected by parents who are fully aware of the politics of prospective governors.

The main political parties just cannot stick democracy: they are quasi-fascist organisations. Or as Lord Hailsham put it, we have a system of "elected dictatorship" in Britain.